The Crooked Trail (1936)

Synopsis
by Hans J. Wollstein

Released by A.W. Hackel's Supreme Pictures Corp., this low-budget Western stars Johnny Mack Brown as Jim Blake, a cowpuncher who happens upon Harve Tarlton (John Merton), a wanted killer left for dead in the desert. After making Harve a partner in his prospecting business, Blake begins a romance with Helen Carter (Lucille Browne), the daughter of the hotel proprietor (Horace Murphy) in nearby Patchy Creek. Helen, however, is engaged to Lanning (Charles King), a nasty gambler who has been threatening her father. Using Harve's thieving skills, Lanning enjoys a lucrative business separating the local prospectors from their gold but is eventually driven out of town by Blake. Elected marshal by a grateful citizenry, Blake marries Helen, but refuses to listen when she warns him against Harve and continues to blithely deposit gold nuggets in the Carter safe. While Jim and the townsmen are fighting a gang of outlaws, Harve robs the safe and then asks Helen to run away with him. Hoping to prove Harve's duplicity once and for all, she agrees and they head for the badlands with Jim in hot pursuit. There is a final confrontation and Helen gets in the way of a bullet meant for Jim. Happily, she survives and is soon reunited with Jim, who has been forced to kill Harve in self-defense.